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consists in losing Thee! Come quickly, O my Saviour! for my heart sighs after Thee; enter therein, and consecrate it to Thyself; succour me since I invoke Thee; receive me, since I come to Thee; lead me, since I give myself up to Thee; begin from this moment, to reign for ever in my soul, which would serve Thee, which desires, seeks, embraces Thee, O my Saviour! my LORD! my Sovereign good!

Praper.

I adore Thee, I praise and glorify Thee, O LORD JESUS CHRIST! I bless Thee, I give thanks unto Thee, O SON of the living GOD! for Thy great love, which made Thee sustain such manifold labours, that Thou, the Saviour of the world, thirsting for the salvation of souls, didst pass whole nights in prayer, wast wearied with journeyings, didst go from one region to another, from city to city, from village to village, from house to house; Grant, I pray Thee, that the love of Thee may make me ever ready and zealous to every good work, that I be not slothful in Thy service. Make me to seek with ardent desire, and to promote, as far as possible, the salvation of all men ; and grant that I may always be zealous for Thine honour, and be wholly spent in promoting Thy glory, and the advancement of Thy kingdom. Amen.

CHAPTER XX.

THE TEACHING OF OUR LORD.

Gospel Narrative.

See S. Matt. v. vi. vii.

AND seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain ; and when He was set, His Disciples came unto Him; and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying,

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.

3. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.

4. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

5. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.

S. Luke vi. 20-49.

6. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see GOD. 7. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of GOD.

8. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the Prophets which were

before you.

Reflections.

ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.1

The thunder and the earthquake of Mount Sinai and of Mount Horeb have ceased, and nothing is heard but that "still small voice" that spake to Elijah; the voice of that Prophet like unto Moses, the most meek of all men on the face of the earth. Moses and Elijah have departed, and He is there Himself alone; nay rather, they have returned to be seen with Him in the Mount, partaking of His glory, in light such as no fuller on earth could whiten them. For He is not come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets, but to fulfil. Thrice hath the Law been given to us from heaven; first, on Mount Sinai, amid the thunderings and the lightning, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; all of which spoke of the judgment to come, when the thunder shall be heard, and CHRIST seen like the lightning, and the trumpet again shall sound. The second, in the Sermon on the Mount, when CHRIST throughout speaks of the same Judgment to come, but with human voice of persuasion. And the third on the day of Pentecost, when the New Covenant was fulfilled, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." It was that voice of GOD within the heart that speaks of Judgment to come. The first is the Mount of Terror, the second is the Mount of Blessing, and the third is the

1 From Williams on the Nativity,

Mountain of Holiness, the Mount Sion and Church of GOD. But these are all three the promulgation of the same Law; they are like their Divine Author, if we may with reverence say it, One in Three, and Three in One. Each is the fulfilment, but each in a higher sense than the preceding, of the expression, "they shall be all taught of GOD."

Thus the preaching of CHRIST begins and ends with "the Kingdom of Heaven;" which is the crown of the first and of the eighth Beatitude: such is CHRIST, the First and the Last, the first day and the eighth day, the true Sabbath and the true Light. The sixth Beatitude speaks of seeing GOD in purity, as on the sixth day man is made in the Image of GOD, and on the sixth is again renewed after the likeness of Him That made him. The seventh Beatitude speaks of the Sabbath of peace. The eighth, as S. Jerome observes, of "the true circumcision, terminated by martyrdom."

These eight Beatitudes are the opposite to what the world supposes. Poverty of spirit is thought the last qualification for a kingdom; meekness, least likely to obtain earthly inheritance; mourning, most opposed to consolation, by them who say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." The righteousness which continues to hunger and thirst is most unlike the self-satisfaction and self-complacency of Heathen and Jewish righteousness.

The pure in heart seek not pleasure as their end, but enjoy the infinite delight of seeing GOD. Persecution and a kingdom, suffering and reigning, were never found united before they were so found in this Sermon.

Again, the blessings vouchsafed have a present fulfilment even now, in pledge of the higher accomplishment hereafter. To the poor the Gospel is preached; they flock in to it, and receive even here its promises. The mourners therein are comforted. The meek inherit the riches of the kingdom here below, and continuance and length of days. "He hath filled the hungry with good things," even here on earth. The merciful obtain mercy even now from men, who mete into their bosom full measure and flowing over. The pure in heart see GOD now in faith, in beatific vision hereafter. Persecution even now hath sensible joy, emanating from the very countenance of suffering, as in the blessed S. Stephen, seeing the glory that shall be revealed.

Again, it may be observed, that all these graces are bound together by a golden chain; for poverty of spirit is the foundation of mourning, and mourning produces meekness; and meekness causes hunger and thirst after righteousness; and such, being sensible of their own need of mercy, will be merciful to others; and obtaining mercy, will be "pure in heart;" for the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits; and thus, being sons of God, they bear the Cross of persecution. Thus, though there are eight distinct roads to the riches that are hid in CHRIST," the treasures of darkness," the secrets of His Kingdom; yet they mutually imply each other; and all begin and end in CHRIST.

There is an intimate order and relation between these and the petitions in the LORD's Prayer: the poor in spirit, to whom the Kingdom of Heaven be

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